As an organizer I hear this statement more than ANYTHING else…

“I want to get organized but I just don’t know where to start!”

It plays over and over in your mind like a broken record. You know you have to get things together but you just don’t know how to begin. You know what you want to accomplish but you can’t seem to get going.

Some people can draw out an intricate plan, or make a list of steps and stick to it. Some people are naturally organized and just do well at maintaining it. Then there are people that over-think, overreact, and worry too much about the little details. I believe that most of the people that ask where to start fall into this category. If you are one of these people, the answer I have for you is SOMEWHERE.

Start with a drawer, start with a shelf, whatever it is just START. If you are not naturally a planner and you are trying to get things just right in your mind before you start, the planning process could scare you into doing NOTHING. Instead just clear your mind and tackle a drawer. Once you see how easy that was then you can move on to another, then another. Take baby steps and don’t overwhelm yourself by looking at the whole picture. Instead, just do SOMETHING. Start small, finish big!

So what about you, have you found yourself overwhelmed with a project even before it began? How did you overcome that or are you still trying to overcome it?

[photo: I like]

So, your house is disorganized and you are ready to get your act together. The first problem you realize is that you are unsure of where to start or what needs to be organized. Here is an activity that will help you create an organizing project list…

Put on a New Pair of Eyes

I suggest putting on new pair of eyes. I know that sounds a bit weird, but this is an activity you can have fun with. I want you to pretend you are a neighbor and you just got invited over by yourself for the first time. Oh, and guess what, you are a REALLY Nosy Neighbor. For the next hour or two forget this is your house, forget the overwhelm of getting organized, forget your to do’s and for once pretend you are a stranger to your house.

Start at the Front Door

You are now a Nosy Neighbor with a notebook in hand. You are nosy and have nothing better to do so you are going to start poking around. You walk in the front door and immediately trip over a shoe and think, “Wow were these people raised in a barn? I would at least put a basket next to the door to corral the shoes.”

It is Time to be Critical

As you walk through the house write down organization problems you notice and possible solutions that YOU would implement IF you were the one living there. Remember you are just a REALLY Nosy Neighbor. Be critical.

Work Your Way Through the House

Next you notice there are clothes waiting to be folded strewn over a chair. You make a note to check out the laundry room, maybe the folding could happen in there. You open cabinet after cabinet and find things a little disarray, mostly stuff these people probably don’t even use, you know you wouldn’t. After all you are just a REALLY Nosy Neighbor that has no emotional attachment to this stuff.

Next you swing by the pantry and notice that it is cluttered with some odd varieties of junk food, you think to yourself, “Maybe that is why my neighbor has put on a few pounds lately. She would really feel so much better if she didn’t eat this junk.” After all you are just a REALLY Nosy Neighbor that doesn’t crave those types of things.

Think of Creative Solutions

As you walk through the house the list grows quite lengthy and you have come up with quite a few solutions. Your view is unbiased, you are not thinking about how long organizing will take or how to get started you are just being a REALLY Nosy Neighbor doing what nosy neighbors do. Picking issues apart and solving them in your head.

Get the Kids Involved

Now if you really want to have some fun have your Nosy kids play along as well, but beware of the REALLY honest views they will give you. Only ask if you are ready to hear what they REALLY think about their house.

By the time this activity is complete you will have a list of every room and every organizational challenge you want to tackle as well as a few great solutions without the fuss, or the overwhelm. Allow yourself to take a look at your situation through another person’s eyes.

So how about it Nosy Neighbor, go take a look right inside the front door, what is the first thing you notice?

Recently during an organizing class I was leading, a woman asked me for tips on organizing her photos. She said she got rid of doubles and bad pictures. She organized them by categories and people. Lastly she placed them in storage bins and labeled the outside.

Then she said… “What do I do next?”

First of all I was so proud that she had gotten that far. It was a feet in itself to tackle years and years worth of photos! She put in all this work and yet she didn’t feel done.

After talking to her it made me realize that all to often we get caught up in the “What Comes Next?”

She had her pictures categorized and stored properly. If she wanted a certain photo or set of photos she would most certainly know where they are. Even more importantly, if something happened to her, her husband and children would be able to make sense of the photos. Yet she still didn’t feel that level of completion she was after.

Some of us can’t afford to get all of our pictures scanned or don’t have the time for intricate scrapbooks.  I think just working on simply putting the pictures in albums will work wonderfully for her, however she needs to allow herself the satisfaction of feeling that this project is COMPLETE.

There has to come a time when we can say “I organized enough! If I have time to go above and beyond that is fine, but I am satisfied with where I am at now.” Award yourself with the satisfaction of a job well done. Dear readers, there are a million ways you can “perfect” an organizing project but perfect comes with a hefty price.

You must determine when enough is Enough!

Do you have any organizing projects you feel aren’t complete but it is technically done?
Are you getting caught up in doing things perfectly?
Are you overwhelming yourself by not allowing a project to be considered complete?

[photo: Mr. T in DC]

Clutter and disorganization can cause all kinds of physical and emotional stress. We let our stuff and thoughts take over and cause so much grief. Clutter can cause us to be less productive and strips away our precious time.

Besides being stressed and losing time, have you ever thought about how much clutter is actually costing you? Take a look at these examples and see if you can relate to any of them…

-  Have you ever paid a bill late, perhaps more than once and accrued a late fee? Let’s just say you have done this three times in one year. = $105

-  Do you have clothes in your closet that still have tags on them? You bought them because you couldn’t pass up the deal, but they just sit there. Let’s say you found a great deal and each item was only $7 but you have 10 pieces of clothing. =$70

-  Have you ever accidentally thrown something out of importance? Maybe you had a check to cash and got caught up in what you were doing and threw it away. In this case a woman threw out $200,000 worth of checks! Luckily she realized it and found them!

-  Are you renting storage space to house extra STUFF? When is the last time you actually had to access that stuff? This can cost approximately $100 a month. =$1200 a year!

-  Do you spend money on impulse purchases when you go grocery shopping. Let’s estimate that at $5 per week. I know I have done worse that that in the past. In a year that can equal $260!

-  Have you made a purchase only to come home and realize you already had one of whatever it was you just bought? Often times these are small purchases but could be avoided by knowing where everything is in your home. Let’s say $5o here assuming it might have happened one or two times in a year.

I know the case of accidentally throwing away $200,000 is a wee bit extreme but the rest of the numbers are quite the reality for the average person. In these cases the excess added up to $1685! I don’t know about you but I could do a lot with that extra money.When you break it down and really look at what clutter is costing you it can be eye opening!

For those of you in the business world, here is another way to look at it…

Multiple statistics have shown that the average worker loses at least one hour of productivity each day due to disorganization.

[photo: alancleaver 2000]

Organizing is….

A while back I asked my readers what being organized meant to them, here are a few of their responses…

Paula said, “organization is all about making your daily life easier and less stressful. It’s also about making sure you have time for what is really important to you and your family.”

Gilda said, “I think of Organization as bringing Order to Life – whether it be home, work, schedules or whatever it is you’re doing. When there is order, there is peace.”

Hope said, “Organizing = an end to chaos; simplicity in your life; a sense of accomplishment; success; an open door for more independence”

Larissa said, “I think organizing means considering everything that you really need to use for your life to go smoothly, figuring out how to efficiently allow those things to do their job, and clearing out/getting rid of everything else.”

Wow are these some smart ladies or what! I think this quote from AA Milne really simplifies the meaning of organization quite well. This is actually being said by Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh…

“Organizing is what you do before you do anything, so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up.” ~ AA Milne

I gave  a few examples of how clutter can lead to disorganization and really clutter is any thing or thought that prevents you from living life to the fullest. It is STUFF that has no plan or purpose; no rhyme or reason. It is just there piling up.

To be successful at anything you have to make goals, plan and prepare. There are not many things you can do in life that you can just jump right in and do and be a complete success. We learn to walk on wobbly legs, we learn to ride a bike on training wheels, we practice at getting that recipe just right, we read and research everything we can before bringing that new baby home! We become Husbands, Wives,  Moms, Dads, homeowners, caretakers, business men/women and we are expected to manage it all and have it all together. Life is full of curve balls and sometimes we have to make the best of what we have. But before we do anything we have to prepare, plan and make goals.

“Organizing is what you do before you do anything, so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up.” ~ AA Milne

We have all these things we want to do and want to be and sometimes it just looks like one jumbled mess. If you think of organizing as what you do before you do anything then perhaps it will be easier to set that time aside and set priorities for yourself.

Organizing is Not…

Organizing is not about being perfect. You can still have piles of paper and know where everything is. Are your piles functioning and not bothering anyone or are they clutter?

Organizing is not one size fits all. Did you try to get organized and fail miserably at it? There are many different ways to organize. Perhaps you are a visual person and you tried to tuck everything away out of site. Everyone has there own organizing style. Don’t give up.

Being organized looks different for each individual. You may have to try something new every once in a while. Our needs are constantly changing and our rolls and lives get rearranged. Don’t get stuck on one idea or mindset that you think you should follow. Keep an open mind in order to find a system that works for you.

What is the hardest part of organizing for you? Where do you get stuck?

[photo: ripkas]